Bitcoin Mania Triggers Miner Influx to Rural Washington

Small towns confront surge in power demand as firms that generate new cryptocurrency units ask to set up shop.

In Wenatchee, Wash., a bitcoin invasion is under way.

Home to hydroelectric dams that harness the flow of the Columbia River, north central Washington has some of the cheapest power in the U.S.

That has made the largely rural area best known for its apple orchards a magnet for bitcoin miners, who use powerful specialized computers to generate new units of cryptocurrencies—a process that requires vast amounts of electricity to run and cool thousands of machines.